


A Place To Stand

by xantissa



Series: Power Imbalance [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Explicit Smut, F/M, M/M, Mild Incest, Multi, Other, Slice of Life, War, settling down
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:43:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6303073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A kind of a sequel to “Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep” but it’s not a necessary part. </p><p>This is a collection of stories and scenes depicting the further adventures of Sasuke, Itachi, and their newly formed Clan. It’s about finding a home. Growing up. Learning to be yourself. Learning to live with people, taking care of them. It’s about war, about peace, and about all those ordinary days everybody lives through. Do not expect breakneck action or any thrilling plot. There might be some badass moments though :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dusk was already falling, the world was washed in greys and blues when Naruto felt the shiver-inducing aura of the Uchiha party. They were still miles away according to Kakashi’s ninken, but the aura was…staggering.

“Sasuke,” Naruto whispered, turning to look towards the trees lining the north border of the small outpost they’d chosen for their negotiation spot.

It was easy to distinguish Sasuke’s dark and malicious one, cold like a knife to the gut. It was suddenly accompanied by something powerful and inescapable that made one want to just lie down and die. The new aura was neither dark nor malicious like Sasuke’s, but it felt inescapable somehow, like there was no use fighting at all.

“That’s Uchiha Itachi,” Kakashi said, straightening a bit from his slouch. He had the misfortune to have fought Itachi twice, losing both times. It irked him that he’d never managed to land a solid blow against the Uchiha prodigy.

Tsunade snorted, tossing her blond hair behind her shoulder in a very challenging manner. “It’s just a cheap intimidation tactic.”

There were other auras joining Sasuke’s. None of them as overwhelming as Sasuke and his brother, but powerful in their own right. Together the sheer firepower seemed staggering.

“It may be simple, but it is working,” Yamanaka Inoichi muttered from his slouch against the entrance to the old outpost.

Getting Sasuke to return home was one thing, but it occurred to Naruto that Sasuke’s growing team, or rather budding clan, was quickly turning into a force that wouldn’t be ignored for much longer. If it hadn’t been Konoha who’d convinced them to join, it would have been some other village, one that could very well turn out to be on the other side of the quickly approaching war.

The other option was hunting Sasuke down and eliminating him and his people before they became more of a threat. That option wasn’t feasible though. Sasuke had already amassed enough power that it would be a battle in itself. The Fourth Shinobi War had just started, but was already taking up not only resources, but also lives. There hadn’t been any serious battles fought yet, but the border skirmishes were already taxing them. Naruto was sure Konoha couldn’t afford to lose god-only-knew how many ninja in a quest to kill the Uchiha.

His way was so much better: convince Sasuke to join Konoha again. It would bring back the friend he missed and make Konoha stronger, all in one fell swoop. Granted, Sasuke was uniformly hated across the other nations, but the bitter truth was the war had already started and their allies, as few as they were, could be convinced. Gaining an upper hand, or even a stronger position in the war, would be enough to absolve Uchiha of any sins.

It was getting dark when the first figures dropped down from the trees to walk towards Naruto and his party. The two figures in front were instantly recognizable as the Uchiha brothers by the eerily glowing red eyes, especially visible in the gathering dusk.

All of them were dressed in dark cloaks with their hoods pushed back. Itachi and Sasuke walked in step, their eyes a slowly spinning Sharingan. Behind them were another three figures. One had short red hair, Sasuke’s team member Juugo, the hulking shape of Hoshigaki Kisame, and a small red-headed woman whom Naruto now knew was called Karin. _Uzumaki_ Karin.

Sasuke’s gaze was cold when when it came to rest on the group waiting for him. It slid over Tsunade with barely a pause, pointedly ignoring the Hokage. Yamanaka Inoichi and Morino Ibiki were given the same treatment, before sliding towards Kakashi. There was very little reaction, but Sasuke did look at their former teacher for a while longer, his eyes flickering quickly over his body, probably assessing, before coming to rest on Naruto.

“Naruto.” He greeted his former teammate before shifting to look at their former teacher.

“Kakashi.” Naruto wasn’t the only one whose brows went up at the unexpected, maybe not respect, but neutrality in the Uchiha’s voice.

“Yo!” Kakashi waved at the Uchiha party, his only visible eye curling in a smile. “Glad you came.”

Uchiha Itachi was blank and silent by his brother’s side. The deep shadows under his eyes that had become such a trademark were gone now. He looked younger than Naruto expected. His eyes were a lighter shade than Sasuke’s, as was his hair; instead of the cold black, it was a warmer color, rather like graphite. He was just a little shorter than Sasuke, his hair in a long tail, snaking over his shoulder to the front and hanging almost to his waist.

It struck Naruto then just how pretty both the Uchiha brothers were.

“Karin, Juugo and Kisame will stay out here,” Sasuke said looking back at the three fighters.

“Yeah,” the redheaded Uzumaki drawled. “We will keep company to the five ANBU you have hidden around.”

They expected Sasuke’s sensor type to track down the two ANBU hidden closest to them, but the three additional ones were the best in chakra suppression and were hidden over three miles away from the outpost. Nobody was supposed to sense them.

The woman gave them a wicked grin, fierce, almost screaming _bring it on_.

“What?” she mocked. “You really thought you could hide them from _me _?”__

__So that was one backup plan down already._ _

__“Hoshigaki Kisame is a missing nin with a very large bounty on his head. Why should we trust your word that he will behave himself?” It was Tsunade. Her dislike of the Uchiha, and Sasuke in particular, very obvious. Still, her questions had merit, especially in light of the fact that Kiri was one of the very few allies Konoha managed to secure in the war. Naruto remembered the way it felt to try and fight Kisame, his chakra-stealing sword making all of Naruto’s techniques useless._ _

__“He doesn’t have any other choice.” That was Sasuke, his voice low, dangerous and absolute. “There’s a control seal placed on him; he will do what I want.”_ _

__This time the focus on Sasuke became different, heavier. It occurred to everybody gathered that Sasuke wasn’t just a misguided teenager. He was a ninja who’d spent years training under one of the Legendary Sannin, an incredibly dangerous man. Not only was he powerful enough to take down a Hokage, but he was also cold and cunning. None of them knew Sasuke anymore, and it was starting to dawn on them that they couldn’t afford to look down on him._ _

__Control seals were morally shady things. On one hand they allowed bloodless resolution to conflict, but on the other they took away free will. Most nations had banned their use, but as Danzo had shown them with Root, they were still around._ _

__“I don’t want it to take forever, so before we start, I will make sure of what I am bringing to the table.” Sasuke spoke evenly, stepping a slightly away from his people._ _

__“The Uchiha bloodline back in the village, and you and your people’s assistance in the war.” This time it was the Yamanaka who spoke, but there was an edge of question in his voice._ _

__Sasuke stretched his arm towards the ground, and from under his sleeve a white snake head appeared. Its head was easily as big as his palm, and was obviously an albino cobra. White, with red eyes, it slithered from under Sasuke’s clothes to the floor. Everyone straightened, all too aware that nobody sensed the summon before it had appeared. Even now, watching it slither to the ground in thick white coils, Naruto couldn’t sense any chakra to the summon. It barely even registered as an ordinary animal._ _

__Sasuke’s Sharingan spun faster suddenly, shifting into the Mangekyou._ _

__This time, the reaction was more visible: Kakashi pushed his hitai-ate off his own Sharingan, and the other Clan Heads tensed, reaching for weapons._ _

__The mood became even more tense when Sasuke’s left eye shifted _again_. His Mangekyou changed into something that looked suspiciously like a Rinnegan, only red, and on the concentric lines surrounding the pupil there were floating tomoe._ _

__Sasuke made a single seal, knelt down, and touched the white snake._ _

__“Orochimaru.”_ _

__The reaction was instantaneous._ _

__The pale shape stretched and changed, becoming blurry and somehow liquid. Naruto blinked rapidly because it was hard to even look at the shifting form. When the figure stabilized, it was exactly as Naruto remembered him last. Tall and imposing, with his long dark hair falling down his back, and his face painted with the clan markings._ _

__It wasn’t that he could summon the dead that had everybody staring at Sasuke without any comprehension. It was the fact that on all levels, Orochimaru registered as if he really was alive. He had a heartbeat visible in the pulsing vein at his neck, he had a scent, a presence of that cold, alien chakra about him._ _

__“What the hell is going on?!” It was Tsunade who exploded first. Kakashi was still staring, eyes now shifted into Mangekyou form and looking over Orochimaru’s body._ _

__“You can test him, but he is alive by all definitions. He has a working body and his mind is intact,” Sasuke said calmly._ _

__“Tsunade.” Orochimaru spoke this time. “You can check,” he added, reaching a hand towards her. There was something almost fond in the Sannin’s voice._ _

__Tsunade approached him, her fury a living thing. She touched his outstretched arm with her own, already enveloped by green, healing chakra. For a moment she just performed diagnostics, but with every passing second, her fury lessened, and instead dread was taking its place._ _

__“How?” she stuttered finally, backing away from Orochimaru and the Uchiha brothers. A dead man stood in front of her, for all intents and purposes, _alive_._ _

__Orochimaru smiled that wicked grin of his._ _

__“I both am and am not alive. From what I can tell, Sasuke-kun has the ability to call forth my soul into this realm. As for the body…”_ _

__“The snake.” Kakashi said. “It had no chakra signature and now I can only sense yours.”_ _

__“Very good, Kakashi-kun.” There was so much condescension in Orochimaru’s voice. _So much_. “The summon basically trades places with me, its soul is now residing in the Underworld. At least as long as Sasuke-kun doesn’t call the summon back.” Orochimaru cast a curiously amused glance at the youngest Uchiha. “It seems my student is a bit more vindictive than even I gave him credit for.”_ _

__Curiously, there was no anger in the Sannin’s voice. He seemed more intrigued, even respective of Sasuke than anything else._ _

__Naruto looked at Sasuke. His former teammate’s face was a cold mask that hid his thoughts perfectly._ _

__“I think it’s time to start the negotiations,” said Yamanaka, his eyes dark and face pale, looking at Sasuke as if he was a monster. Naruto knew that look well, he’d grown up on the receiving end of it. He noticed the way Sasuke became even more frigid in response to it._ _

__He hated it, the chill that emanated from his friend. How distant and cold he seemed. How dead._ _

__“Hey, bastard,” Naruto called, and the whole party started moving towards the building. Red glowing eyes shifted to look at him. In the privacy of his own mind, Naruto had to admit that the Mangekyou Sharingan and the Sharingan Rinnegan did look intimidating. He looked Sasuke in the eye fearlessly though. He had a natural weakness against genjutsu and Sharingan in particular, but they’d come here to negotiate, and at least one of them had to demonstrate trust or all of this would have been in vain._ _

__“I’m still better than you,” Naruto taunted when he was sure he had Sasuke’s attention._ _

__Sasuke’s cold mask shattered almost immediately, irritation and offence breaking through at once._ _

__“In your dreams, dead last,” Sasuke scoffed before schooling his face into that damned mask again._ _

__Naruto grinned, feeling a million times better. His friend was still in there somewhere._ _


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke stared at the locked gate leading to the Uchiha district. It had been years since he was here last. He was young and bitter then, sure he was leaving the village to gain strength, power, to avenge his clan, and fulfill his duty as the last Uchiha. 

He didn’t bother locking the gate then, sure he would never be back. After all he was never meant to survive his battle with Itachi anyway.

Now here he stood again, back in Konoha, this time by his own choice.

Behind him he could feel the others. Juugo and Karin openly curious, even Kisame seemed excited at the prospect of a proper place to live, not the semi-permanent camp they had had before. The most excited were the snakes though, chattering about how many sunny window ledges were available and who would get which. Also loudly considering the possibility of mouse nests in the house.

Houses.

Providing anything survived the Council’s looting, that is.

Sasuke couldn’t help but feel that he wouldn’t be any more keen on entering the district if there were piles of gold waiting inside.

Itachi was beside him, his face paper-white and blank.

The last time he was here, he murdered their family on the Council’s orders. He had his reasons. He was young, and at that time it was the only way he could see to save at least Sasuke, the only way to stop another war from breaking out. But if he touched Sasuke right now, it would end in violence.

Sasuke took a step forward, putting both his hands on the old, peeling wood and pushed his chakra out.

The old seals took a moment to engage but with a faint hum, they unlocked the gates. The Sharingan was supposed to grant him perfect recall, yet all he saw when the abandoned streets of the Uchiha district were revealed in front of him was blood. Not the empty, lonely streets of his Academy years, but those of his nightmares. On every street, in every house, on every old wall Sasuke passed, he saw only the same carnage as the night his whole world had shattered.

For a moment he felt dizzy. All the anger, all the hatred rushing in from every direction. What was he thinking, coming back to this place, this place where he’d watched his mother and father bleed to death, this place that had broken him. Did he think he could just start over? His hands were shaking, his eyesight swimming, and he stumbled, too overwhelmed to even walk straight.

“Sasuke?” Itachi caught his arm, stabilizing him, and everything went red. Suddenly he couldn't even breathe, the pain and rage choking him. He wasn’t even aware he was molding chakra until it was almost burning his skin, on the edge of releasing straight into the hand touching him.

“Sasuke?” This time Itachi’s voice was worried, wary even, but he was still holding onto his arm, and Sasuke wished he would let go because by gods, he was going to do something horrible, the way his blood was pounding in his ears and his mouth tasted like iron. It was as if he wasn’t even in control of his body, his mind nothing but a pulsing red tangle of pain and hatred again. Just when he thought the horrible pressure would shatter, when something horrible was just about to happen…

Sasuke! Itachi! Hajime is being mean to me again! came Mirai’s complaint. He caught two mice already and he didn’t share! There was particularly grating whine to Mirai’s cry. It did however pierce through the red fog suffusing Sasuke’s mind, leaving him limp and confused, but in control again.

It’s like a buffet in here, came Hajime’s offended response, she can catch her own.

She couldn’t catch a mouse even if it bit her on her tail, came Kanaye’s snarking comment.

During the last six months, Mirai grew all of half an inch and her hunting skills, if at all possible, became even worse. At this point Kanaye was actually being nice, because should Mirai try hunting mice by herself she would probably get eaten by the mouse.

Mean! Mirai cried. 

It was going to devolve into a sibling shouting match any second now, Sasuke was sure.

“Hajime,” Itachi called quietly.

What?

“Hajime,” Itachi’s tone was quiet and calm a direct contrast to the irritated snakes.

She can finally learn to hunt!

“Hajime,” even Sasuke could tell Itachi was losing his patience.

Oh for…. Fine! But it’s the last time! There was a rustle in the nearby bushes as Hajime presumably went back to hunting, this time for his hapless sister. 

“The way they eat, we could hire them out as pest control. We’d make a fortune,” Itachi grumbled, as Mirai streaked across the street they’d been walking down, presumably in search of Hajime and the promised mice.

Once he was steady on his feet, Sasuke pulled away from Itachi. Before his brother’s hand fell away, Sasuke noticed fresh electrical burns on his palm.

*

Only three of the twenty-eight houses in the district were remotely suitable for moving in. The rest needed serious renovations, as right now they offered protection no better than the tents they’d used to live in. It wasn’t surprising that it was the main family houses that were in the best condition. His family’s home and the neighboring two houses that used to belong to his father’s siblings were in the best state, where even the plumbing still worked. Other houses scattered though the district were also in a condition that meant a fairly small amount of work before they could be fully inhabited. Of course, they needed to be emptied out completely. When he was a child, Sasuke didn’t know about the proper storing of linen and clothes, so over they years, everything that wasn’t a well-impregnated wood, steel, or stone, rotted out completely. 

Now older and wiser, Sasuke mourned the senseless waste, the neglect. At the time he still lived here, he was in too much pain to even bear thinking about touching any of the articles of clothing left in the dozens of houses, too afraid that the smell or sight of them would bring back too many memories.

Now, years later, to his surprise he thought he would give anything to smell his mother’s perfume, to touch his father’s favorite coat. Sasuke has learned a long time ago that mistakes had a tendency come back to bite you in the ass when you least expected, and once they sank their teeth into flesh, they tended to hold on.

Between the four of them, they cleaned out the three most habitable houses, piling everything in one of the long-overgrown gardens. Sasuke would burn it later, after Tsunade made the proper announcements to the village. It wouldn’t do to panic the civilians with sudden flames in the supposedly abandoned district. In one way it would be a certain kind of relief, to burn away all traces of his dead family, to start with a clean slate. The houses stripped of tatami mats, rugs, linen, blankets and embroidered silk that used to adorn the houses’ walls, left with only naked wood and stone looked almost alien, foreign, new to him.

On the other, it meant losing even that pitiful reminder of his family. Whatever they put into the houses next would never smell, never look the way it had at the time of his early childhood. 

There were weeks, maybe months of work to make the whole district clean and safe to habitate again, but the three houses were empty and scrubbed down now. The roofs were a concern, and they would need to start fixing it as any leaks became visible again. The winter was milder, warmer here in Konoha than it was high in the mountains, so it wasn’t a direct threat.

Money was a concern. They had some savings, but with the expectation that all of the heavy hitters of Sasuke’s group would be taking part in the war, it meant less people to send out for missions, less money to bring in. Sasuke wasn’t sure if they would be able to support everybody, especially considering how many things would need to be bought for the houses and for the pregnant women. At least medical services were free for families of active shinobi of the village. Letting the women find civilian jobs was one possibility, but frankly Sasuke wasn’t sure if they would be able to manage it. As well as they had adjusted to living in the small clan Sasuke had created, they had spent their whole lives locked in a lab, abused in subtle ways, protected from the ordinary problems of life in others. In many ways, they were as unused to civilian life as he himself. Ironically, the person adjusted to civilian life the most among them all was Kisame.

Kisame was the oldest of them. He’d grown up in his village before defecting, then lived alone for a while before joining Akatsuki. Itachi spent most of his life with Akatsuki, but unlike Kisame who joined as an adult, Itachi had still been just a kid when he became part of that particular organization. In some ways, Itachi had even less contact with civilians while in Akatsuki than he would have had in Konoha. 

And there were the snakes. All of them unreasonably excited about the prospect of living in the village, curious as cats and innocent as children. In a way Sasuke feared for them, feared that that easy trust and happiness would be broken in the face of people’s apprehension and unease. In time they would probably learn to be like Itachi and him, uncaring and oblivious to what other people thought of them. Deep down, Sasuke admitted to himself that he didn’t want them to be like Itachi and him, didn’t want that particular coldness to change them. 

The snakes actually did a lot of the work by exterminating every critter they could find. All of them were now lolling around half-conscious from overeating, their venom reservoirs empty. Even Mirai, the last time he’d seen her, looked more like a stuffed sausage than a snake. He was peripherally aware that the snakes kept summoning more of their brothers as the numbers of mice, rats, and other critters became too large for the few to eat by themselves. As they kept coming and going without Sasuke’s interference, he left them to it, only occasionally catching the edge of some kind of argument. He heard something about Nao and biting and wisely made himself scarce. That snake bit everything and everybody except Itachi. Was also unreasonably protective of the older Uchiha, and especially his looks. Sasuke shuddered to think what would happen should anybody wounded Itachi badly enough to leave a scar.

It was very late now, or rather very early, and Sasuke could feel tiredness in every inch of his body. First the long treck to Konoha, then the marathon of cleaning preceded by days of furious travelling and packing up the camp in the mountains had drained him. He needed rest, needed needed sleep, there were meeting planned with the elders and clan leaders from mid-morning till the late evening, and he needed a clear head for that.

Karin and Juugo had already conked out hours ago, curled around each other for warmth in one of the cleared rooms. Kisame went to bed, unbothered by the weight of history pressing down on the Uchiha brothers. Sasuke tried to go to sleep, but all he managed was painful tossing and turning.

Itachi never even came to bed.

Finally, admitting that he wasn't going to fall asleep alone in this place, Sasuke went in search of his brother.

The seal lead him straight to Itachi.

His brother was on his knees in the kitchen of their uncle’s house, shirt sticking to his body with sweat, hair messily tied up in a bun, a bucket of soapy water beside him and a small brush with stiff bristles in his pruned hands as he furiously scrubbed at the old floor by the weak light of the old oil lamp.

Itachi gave no sign of knowing Sasuke was there, but Itachi rarely betrayed his thoughts with his body language.

Sasuke crouched beside him and took the brush from Itachi’s hands.

His brother stilled under the touch, but didn’t raise his head from his contemplation of the floor.

“You should rest.”

Itachi huffed lightly through his nose.

“Like you?”

Sasuke sat down on the floor, resting his back against the nearest wall. His body felt heavy and sore, much more than a simple day of cleaning could explain. He was used to fighting and training day and night, but he’d never felt this exhausted before.

“I can’t sleep,” Sasuke admitted. “I was never supposed to come back here alive.”

Itachi sat down on his heels and folded his hands primly in his lap.

“When I left, I was sure you would make your life here,” Itachi paused, licking his dry lips. He looked very young in his dusty, dirty clothes and his hair a mess. “It’s just now occurring to me how naive I was at the time.”

Sasuke leaned his head back, resting it on the cold wall, and closed his eyes, saying nothing. Eventually he heard movement and felt Itachi settling down beside him, their shoulders touching.

After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke reached out to gently take hold of Itachi’s right wrist.

The blisters on his hand looked red and swollen, more aggravated than the first time Sasuke had glimpsed them.

“You should have had Kanaye heal that for you,” Sasuke said as he ran the pad of his finger over the fragile skin of Itachi’s wrist.

Itachi only hummed, saying nothing.

Sasuke didn’t apologize, just like Itachi never apologized for what he did. The situation was too enormous for such simple words to ever be enough.

They stayed like that, sitting on the floor of their uncle’s kitchen, till the skies lightened up and the dawn came.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is a bit rambly. I also took a stab at action scene! Poor Kakshi though, he is slowly but surely turning into my whipping boy. Eh, he will deal.  
> This chapter is a bit over 4 000 words, and to whet your appetite I have another 4000 written and awaiting beta.
> 
> HUGE thanks to NurseDarry for wonderful, unique, the best beta ever. LOVE YOU!

There were crows in Konoha again. Or rather, Itachi’s crows. How different they were, Kakashi had outright forgotten. There were a lot of them, much more than what he had got used to for the last years, and they were bigger, more curious and loud. The black birds seemed to spend a lot of time just perching on trees or telephone wires and watching people. They also talked at them.

And stole. 

Everything they could carry off, from food to odd knickknacks and money. How Kakashi knew they were Itachi’s birds? They only stole from ninja. And then they mocked the people they robbed. Usually by sitting out of range with the stolen possession dangling from their beaks. They also cawed. They talked at people as if expecting them to understand. The way they sounded was easy to interpret, as if the sounds were tailored specifically for humans. The emotions in the voices were a perfect imitation of humans. It was both astounding and very, very humiliating when the birds mocked him with amusement.

So far he’d lost one book, two wallets and for some unfathomable reason, used-up pencils. The feathered menace didn’t touch freshly sharpened ones, but any halfway-used pencil was a temptation they couldn’t resist.

Mostly, the birds tended to keep an eye on the high-level ninja. There was a pair following Kakashi everywhere. Whenever he managed to lose one, another would eventually track him down in the town. He wondered if it was Itachi sending the birds out or did they do it of their own accord? With what he remembered about the relationship between the birds and the child he’d briefly met, it was even money.

Today the bird watching him was quiet. It was sitting on a nearby tree, feathers puffed up to ward off the chill. It kept looking at Umino as often, if not more so, than it looked at Kakashi or Genma. If Kakashi had to guess, he would say the bird seemed surprised, or maybe confused.

Kakashi glared at Umino Iruka, wondering how in hell the chuunin managed to wrangle his way onto this particular mission.

The chuunin was standing straight, face set and eyes firmly forward as they waited for the other half of the team. This was both an immensely important mission and probably a very mundane one. Sasuke and his party had been in the village for four days already, the last two a veritable circus, as Tsunade informed the civilian part of Konoha citizens of the true story behind the Uchiha massacre. Or the simplified, easier to swallow version. Shimura Danzo was responsible for the massacre. Other council members in office at the time were being investigated for compliance. Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, along with their extremely dangerous team members, were cleared of all charges and offered a new life in Konoha.

Perversely, the budding war was the perfect time to drop that little bombshell on the citizens. They were disgusted, enraged, confused, but the truth was everybody cared more about the sheer destructive power the new Uchiha clan was capable of than the crimes of old. If their power could stop Konoha from being wiped out, could stop people dying in the brewing war, the citizens were all for accepting them back. Priorities changed when it was your own life on the line.

Now Kakashi, Genma, and apparently Iruka were supposed to accompany Itachi, Juugo, and Karin in their journey to fetch the people Sasuke termed as ‘civilians’ of his clan. It bothered Kakashi that he knew so little about Sasuke, he couldn’t even speculate what that meant. What he remembered of Sasuke was a certain kind of disregard for civilians as _weak_. To think he would accept random people into his clan was more than a little ludicrous. And yet here he was, backpack full of empty storage scrolls, waiting.

Umino was an unexpected addition, and one Kakashi didn’t like.

“Why are you here Iruka-sensei?” Logically he knew the chuunin was very skilled, but he wasn’t the kind of operative you would choose for a mission this sensitive, a mission that stated that their charges had to be delivered safe and sound to Konoha, even if it meant killing everything in their way.

“Tsunade-sama felt it would be prudent, not to mention much safer, to have at least one familiar face join this party. She felt that a solely ANBU escort would put Itachi-kun in a too-wary mindset.”

Kakashi’s mind snagged on the honorific. _Kun?_ It implied a much more intimate relationship than just hearing Itachi’s name or meeting him in passing. With how extensive Uchiha Itachi’s file was, nowhere did Kakashi see the mention of Umino Iruka in it.

“Oh?” Kakashi asked pleasantly, trying to mask his unease. If his information was wrong about this, what else was it wrong about? “You knew Itachi then?”

The teacher cast him a glare, more than aware of the tactics Hatake was using on him. 

“I knew him for a few years before the massacre. We were sort of friends,” Iruka said with a small wry smile. “As in I was a frustrated teenager trying to learn enough techniques to pass the chuunin exam, and he was a little kid that spent a lot of time wrinkling his nose at me and correcting my mistakes,” Iruka exhaled, his eyes hazy and lost in memory. “Gods, I hated him with a burning passion of a thousand suns back then. But it wasn’t that which made Tsunade-sama put me on this team.”

“Then what was it?” Kakashi asked, fascinated in spite of himself.

Iruka looked Kakashi straight in the eye.

“I met Uchiha Itachi once since his defection from Konoha.” Kakashi sucked in his breath in surprise. He had met him and _survived_? 

“And you survived?” Kakashi jerked a little at the sudden question from Genma, who had been very quiet up till now. “How? Even Commander here barely escaped with his life!”

Iruka straightened to his wholly unimpressive height and squared his shoulders.

“He let me go unharmed.”

“Why?!” The you were just a chuunin, why in the hell would the S-class criminal let you go when killing you was probably easier.

“Because Uchiha Itachi was always loyal.” With those words Iruka clammed up, obviously refusing to talk anymore. There was an odd sound to them though. Itachi’s history outwardly suggested an overwhelming loyalty to Konoha, but Kakashi wasn’t so convinced. Itachi was probably loyal to Konoha, but that had been the loyalty of a child. Kakashi now suspected that the fierce loyalty had been a defense mechanism, serving to rationalize the horrible thing Danzo had made him do. Konoha became synonymous to protecting his brother. When Sasuke had left Konoha, Itachi’s worldview started cracking around the edges. No one knew what had happened during and after the fight between the brothers, nothing but extensive destruction and chakra-pollution had remained at the scene of the battle. But it had shifted Itachi’s loyalty from the obscure, cloudy image of idealistic Konoha to very firm, very real Sasuke. The connection between the brothers was almost tangible.

Kakashi had known a few siblings, including the Hyuuga head family twins; Hizashi and Hiashi when they were still young and free of the clan politics. They were very close, closer than anybody Kakashi had seen before, but even that twin bond didn’t hold a candle to the intense, quiet, and terrifying connection between the Uchiha siblings. 

The odd tone to the way Umino pronounced the word _‘loyalty’_ suggested something much deeper, much more complicated than simple loyalty to Konoha.

For some reason, Itachi had spared Umino’s life when he had never spared another Konoha nin’s life.

He didn’t have a lot of time to grill the teacher before he felt the wards of Uchiha district flutter, and then the disquietingly even aura of the older Uchiha approaching at a breakneck speed, followed by two smaller signatures that had obvious trouble with keeping up with him. Kakashi wondered if Itachi was using a shunshin.

The Uchiha arrived silently. There wasn’t even a rustle of clothing as he jumped from a neighboring roof to the ground. Genma and he were too well trained to jump in surprise at the sudden appearance, but Umino wasn’t on their level, and he did flinch. He regained his composure soon enough.

Itachi’s eyes, black and safe for once, swept over Genma and Kakashi in an easy assessing sweep before tracking to Iruka and…staying there. He looked the chuunin up and down quickly, obviously evaluating him and… Kakashi nearly choked, the man honest to god wrinkled his nose at whatever he saw in Umino.

The teacher’s temper snapped up immediately and he puffed himself to deliver an immediate tirade to the Uchiha.

“Don’t even say anything!” The Uchiha closed his mouth, obviously intending to comment on something. “Gods,” Iruka huffed, turning to pick up the backpack that was lying to his feet while they waited. “Just when I almost forgot how much I hated you, you had to remind me!” There was a high volume to Iruka’s complaining but little actual heat. He sounded long suffering and actually a little fond, rather than truly angry.

Studying Itachi’s body language didn’t give Kakashi a lot; the Uchiha’s propensity for billowing cloaks quite effectively obscured most of his body. But there was a tiny upturn to his lips. Not a smile, not even a beginning of it, but a more relaxed expression that Kakashi expected of him.

“Glad to see you haven’t changed, Iruka-sensei,” Itachi said mildly.

Iruka turned to look at him, meeting his eyes as if there was no danger at all.

“Sad to see you are still such a brat,” the teacher snapped fearlessly.

Itachi inclined his head, the long ponytail slithering over his shoulder to fall on his chest, a long line of gleaming hair. “Only in your eyes, Iruka-sensei.”

The Academy teacher _growled_.

*

Itachi was fast.

He was really fast.

He was _irritatingly_ fast.

Kakashi had to pour all his energy into keeping up, just barely keeping under the threshold of his endurance.

They outpaced their team by hours with the speed Itachi was maintaining. It was a rush though, running after somebody this fast. Kakashi was known for his speed, but the truth was people rarely made him really use it. This dangerous dance of enhancing his speed with chakra and balancing it with his body’s natural reserves to maintain this stunning tempo without literally dropping dead of exhaustion. 

Itachi wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue even hours later, his long ponytail floating in the air behind him as he weaved through the thick branches effortlessly. Kakashi couldn't help but admire not only the speed and stamina, but the effortless grace. No move was wasted, no step misjudged. Itachi looked like he could run like this for a whole week if need be, his chakra even and smooth, tightly reined in, betraying nothing of his state of mind. Not that he expected a ninja of Uchiha Itachi’s caliber to betray himself so easily but…

It was strange, exhilarating and undoubtedly dangerous. His instincts kept screaming at him that the Uchiha was a danger, an enemy. An official announcement that the Uchiha clan had signed an official treaty with Konoha and sworn allegiance was decidedly not enough to beat down instincts honed for years. And unfortunate experience. 

If he was totally honest, if just in the privacy of his mind, the fact that the Uchiha so easily shown him his back was galling a bit. As if Kakashi hadn’t been a threat.

His whole body freaked out suddenly, long years of battle experience informing he was in a genjutsu the same moment he ducked on instinct, barely missing the elbow that would have knocked him out. Too out of balance to properly dodge, Kakashi let himself slip from the branch he was on and fall. A burst of quick seals and he was enveloped in a thick cloud of mist, the suiton jutsu coming easy to him. He might have a definite lightning affinity, but the water jutsu always came exceedingly easy to him. 

He twisted in mid air, directing his chakra to his hands. Catching the nearest thick enough branch he swung himself back up, stopping his fall and launching into a quick movement. He had no idea why, but he knew who had attacked him. Only one person was capable of hiding his intent this thoroughly.

Uchiha Itachi.

He had no idea how or why. He kept his eyes on Itachi’s back the whole time so he had no idea when did the man switch with a clone or when the hell he managed to cast a fucking genjutsu on him.

He ran as fast and as stealthily as possible while trying to take stock of his chakra. In normal genjutsu all he would need was to focus his energy and use the Kai seal to dispel the illusion. The older Uchiha was not known for casting _normal_ illusions though. There were plenty of horror stories of people well aware of the fact they were under a genjutsu and still unable to to do anything to break the illusion. It wasn’t a surprise that he couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact way the Uchiha manipulated his chakra, his system appearing clear to him. Uncovering his Mangekyou would probably help with this problem but it would also severely lessen his stamina. At this point, without knowing why Itachi attacked him, it would be probably better to keep as much chakra in reserve as possible.

This time he twisted away from the hail of throwing stars coming from above him fast enough to throw one of his exploding tags into the air to hopefully destroy some of the projectiles. As the small explosive rocked the air, he made a clone of himself that fell lower though the canopy and henged himself into one the branches, hiding, hoping to lure Itachi closer.

“Was the return to the village a sham?” Kakashi’s clone called from the defensive crouch it was in a vee of two bigger branches and trunk. “Was this just a trick to get at me? What do you want?”

He was sure Itachi wouldn’t respond or give his reasons away, but he hoped the guy would be lured into attacking this close. He kept an eye out for any projectile trajectories aimed at his clone. Itachi wasn’t the only one capable of making instantaneous changes. 

There was a rustle and he tensed, leaning a bit forward. Again it was only the legendary reflexes that saved him, letting him twist away from the tip of the kunai that was a moment away from opening his throat.

His heart skipped a beat at how close he was to ending up dead, at how quiet and how damn undetected the Uchiha could be. Unlike their previous fights which were incredibly static, this time Uchiha had been almost invisible.

Almost, but not quite. 

Even as he was twisting away from the blade that nearly took his life, Kakashi launched one of his kunai attached to a ninja wire fly at where Kakashi had expected his opponent to be. Falling down, his move twisted him enough that he saw Itachi melting away from the tree trunk Kakashi was hiding himself against. It burned, just how close Itachi was without Kakashi detecting him at all.

He saw Itachi’s wide eyes, still black and pale lips open in a sigh of surprise, a glimpse of pale skin of his neck and the surprisingly vulnerable arch of the Uchiha’s tendons on that graceful neck distracted him for a crucial moment before his addled brain added two to two and he realised that an open mouth on an Uchiha was a dangerous thing. He didn’t quite manage to twist away from the gust of flame Itachi exhaled at him. 

As he panted through the pain of burns all over his left arm, Kakashi could only hope that the subsequent explosion of the multitude of exploding tags he henged as leaves caught the evil bastard too.

Sinking into the earth, the seals for doton jutsu making him lightheaded with pain as they forced his burned hand to stretch, he forced himself to wait, to ignore the pulsing, burning pain. Pain transmitted as well as killing intent. It took focus and considerable force of will to calm his chakra, make it smooth and loose, clear of any discernible intent.

There was something odd about the whole encounter. Itachi was attacking him silently, not boasting but that was true to what Kakashi knew of him. The very fight on the other hand, wasn't. The fact that he managed to hide himself even from Kakashi, to come so close as to manage to put his knife at Kakashi’s throat meant the older Uchiha was actually close enough to kill Kakashi. Instead, it looked as if the man had intended to maim the older nin, letting Kakashi catch a glimpse of him here and there, almost letting him close in before disappearing again.

Itachi’s chakra was also different from what Kakashi remembered from his two real fights with the older Uchiha. Both times it didn’t carry a killing intent the way Kakashi was familiar with, but it did carry intent. Cool, steady, inescapable intent that didn’t strike fear into the opponent as such, it just sucked out the will to fight. It was this depressing sensation that no matter what he did, no matter how much he fought everything was hopeless and already doomed to fail. It was incredibly hard to fight against, as it attacked parts of the psyche that most ninja were unused to protecting. 

This time Itachi’s aura was tightly reined in. It didn’t leak all over the place suffocating everyone. It was cool, distant, guarded almost. Kakashi couldn’t guess what the reason was for the attack and the peculiar way Itachi was obviously aiming for a mauling rather than a kill.

It didn’t take long to feel the pressure increase above him, a sure sign of something stepping onto the ground he was hiding beneath. Quickly touching the tips of his fingers, he finished the jutsu he’d been keeping on hold all this time. As the chakra around him surged, crumbling the earth beneath Itachi to catch him the rubble, Kakashi pushed out of the earth, aiming for the temporarily-trapped nin. Kakashi had no illusions that this trap would hold Itachi for very long, but at the speed he was moving, just a second was enough.

He sent a hail of throwing stars half a beat before him and pushed his forehead protector up, exposing his Mangekyou. The transplanted sharingan immediately started sucking hungrily of his chakra, throwing the world into painfully sharp relief, the immense number of chakra threads all around him making him almost dizzy. He needed his Mangekyou for the speed and accuracy it gave him, the unparalleled ability to follow movements, but ultimately his body was not wired to sustain it. He always wondered how the hell the Uchiha managed to have the Sharingan activated for so long; even the Mangekyou, as it wasn't only the chakra drain that made the eyes such a pain in the ass. 

It was the truly monumental migraine that threatened to pulverise his mind every time he used the eye for more than a few moments. It wasn’t the eye per se that caused the pain. It was the incredible amount of stimulus. He could see every leaf, every single shadow, every vein, every detail on each of the leaves around him. There were millions of leaves and each and every one was etched into his mind in sharp relief. He could remember all the color of the chakra threads running through every living thing he saw, every sound, every taste and color was forcefully engraved into his mind, no matter if he wanted it or not. It was precisely this immense amount of information forcefully shoved into his brain that was making using the Sharingan so damn painful. He couldn’t even imagine how the hell the Uchiha could stand having this much information constantly shoved into their heads. That probably explained their collective oddness though.

Now with his eye open and recording, he could see the incredibly dense chakra lines suffusing the frame of his opponent. Itachi was indeed trapped to the knee in the rapidly hardening earth. Kakashi saw him weave through the hail of throwing stars like smoke, his body twisting with incredible agility. He managed to deflect what he couldn’t dodge, not even a scratch on him from the stars, but he couldn’t deflect Kakashi. Coming on the heels of the projectile weapons, Kakashi slashed his kunai in a debilitating but not immediately fatal blow, cutting Itachi open from shoulder to hip. Blood splashed out, splattering kakashi’s face. Just before he blinked, nose full of the cloying sweetly metallic scent of blood, Kakashi noticed the shift of the chakra threads, concentrated oddly in the chest he had just cut open. He reached to catch the bleeding man’s shoulder, but his hand closed on air as the frame he could see and smell melted into smoke. From the center of Itachi’s body mass a single crow flew away, chakra threads packed so densely inside him that he looked like no animal Kakashi had ever seen.

Cursing internally at the fact that it was obviously some strange kind of illusion and the fierce pain in his burned arm, Kakashi considered throwing a kunai to kill the bird anyway. He became aware of movement behind him and managed to duck fast enough to avoid being beheaded by the kunai aimed at his head, but he did lose some hair. It hurt, stretching the burned arm this much, but he lashed out behind him, forcing Itachi to twist away from being gutted like a fish. Hoping that this time it was the real man, not another fucking illusion, Kakashi forced his body into a wicked twist, reversing the arc of his arm and aiming for Itachi’s side. The Uchiha’s eyes, black and cold, didn’t betray his emotions as, lightning-fast he twisted away again, one of his hands coming to clench on Kakashi’s heavily burned arm and using it as leverage to vault over the silver-haired nin. 

Even as his knees briefly buckled under him from the nauseating pain, he changed the fall into a roll, moving away from the immediate reach of the Uchiha. He had no choice but to give a bark of pain as he rolled over his injured arm. Itachi was obviously perfectly willing to go for any weakness, but Kakashi was too experienced to let something like that stop him. It was even more painful to spring back into attack, forcing himself close enough that Itachi wouldn’t have time to make any seals. The Uchiha was fast, incredibly fast even, managing to deflect Kakashi’s blows with a grace that made some distant corner of Kakashi’s mind sit up and take notice. It was incredibly rare that he fought someone so skilled, someone so fast and graceful. Itachi’s eyes were black and still, but when Kakashi’s Mangekyou met the older Uchiha’s eyes, he noticed a faint shimmer, the gentlest of flickers and knew the bastard put an illusion over his eyes. 

Now that he became aware of it, he could see the red glow of Sharingan first stage under the illusion of black. Kakashi also realised that Itachi had noticed the fact his ruse was discovered at almost the same time, giving Kakashi no time to react to the knowledge as he went for the injured shoulder again. He managed to land a blow on the already weakened elbow and numbing the whole arm when Kakashi stumbled from another surge of nauseating pain. Even as he was falling to his knees Kakashi was making seals with the other hand, stone spikes rising behind the Uchiha and racing at his unprotected back.

Itachi noticed and launched himself up to avoid the jutsu, but it forced him to break his charge at Kakashi and gave the man enough time to quickly drop two shadow clones into the earth beneath him as he pressed his uninjured hand to the leaf strewn ground to give himself a boost up. 

Watching the Uchiha carefully he tried to asses Itachi. The man was a little winded, his breath faster and skin beaded with sweat, just like Kakashi. They were both augmenting their blows with chakra and while Kakashi didn't manage to land a direct hit, Itachi took his share of damage. Especially in the last exchange, before the man disabled Kakashi’s elbow, he took a glancing blow to his ribs that must have hurt like a bitch. It Itachi hadn’t been augmenting his body, he would have had not only broken ribs but a crushed lung to boot. Sadly it was Kakashi who was definitely faring worse in this situation, his left arm all but useless now while Itachi managed to avoid any serious injury.

He attacked between one heartbeat and the next, going for Itachi’s belly again. As he predicted, the Uchiha used his incredible agility to avoid the blow, vaulting over Kakashi, but this time Kakashi was prepared. The moment he felt the man slip away from him, he dropped his kunai and started making seals. He turned as fast as possible, taking another powerful blow, this time to the chest as he completed a final seal and slammed Itachi with a jet of water.

Or tried to.

The breakneck speed Itachi managed to perform the seals for his fire-breathing jutsu almost hurt his eyes, so rapid even his Sharingan had trouble following the movement. 

The meeting of water and fire resulted in thick steam filling the small clearing the fault in, erasing everything from view. Kakashi’s sensitive ears caught a sound and he sprang forward, both his clones rising from the earth to box Itachi in. In the split second it took Kakashi to move, Itachi managed to pop both the shadow clones. But that moment was enough, as Kakashi didn’t move for Itachi but rather for the single ninja wire he’d set at the very beginning of the fight. Using one of Sasuke’s tricks, he ran an electrical current through the wire, snapping it taught and effectively immobilizing Itachi against a tree trunk.

The wire was wrapped around him from shoulder to hip, the electric current painting a thin line of burned skin over the surprisingly pale and vulnerable stretch of neck, over one collarbone, and down to the man’s hip. The only reason this didn’t knock him out was because Itachi had managed to wedge one hand between his body and the wire, and cover it with enough chakra to counter most of the current. He had to keep his head turned sharply away from the live wire though, making him stretch that neck even more. 

Kakashi couldn’t quite stop staring at it.

The pale, smooth skin looked obscenely vulnerable, so fragile, so damn appealing while the man it belonged to was anything _but_ fragile. They were both panting, the kind of speed and power they were capable of taking its toll. Itachi’s face was a bit sweaty, his lips parted, his breath coming in quick, controlled pants. Single strands of hair were clinging to his sweaty skin, to his lips. The position they were in pushed their bodies close enough Kakashi could feel each expansion of Itachi's chest against him. One of Kakashi’s hands was clenched around the ninja wire, channeling electric current, the only thing actually keeping the Uchiha in place, while his other hand was clenched around the man’s wrist, grinding the bird-fragile bones together. He pushed his knee between Itachi’s thighs, forcing them apart to take away his leverage. There was resistance at first, the hard, lean muscles beneath the clothes tensing up. He pushed another surge of electricity through the wire, forcing a gasp out of the captured man before Itachi gave up and allowed Kakashi’s knee between his legs. As soon as he felt the capitulation, Kakashi pushed his other leg between Itachi’s, taking away all his leverage and lessened the current. He could feel the warmth from the Uchiha’s thighs against his legs, could smell the man. He smelled a little of sweat but mostly of fire and ash. Itachi’s face was still turned sharply away, stretching as far away from from the live wire as possible. He was watching Kakashi though, from the corner of his eye. Kakashi couldn’t help but notice the long black lashes framing his eyes and the slight flush from exertion that made Itachi’s usually impassive face look somewhat more approachable.

“Why did you attack me?” Kakashi growled, trying to ignore the horrible pain in his burned arm.

Itachi shifted in his grasp, his position meant that Kakashi felt that slow undulation of sinew and muscle all along his own body. It was distracting, to say the least.

Itachi’s lips quirked up then, the expression bringing an oddly compelling light to his one visible eye. Being so close, Kakashi saw an odd flicker in the Uchiha’s eyes, a wavering of image that implied that there was a third layer of genjutsu present. He jerked his eyes away but it was too late. 

Kakashi’s world _shattered_.

He stumbled and fell to his knees, jarring his body and falling to his hands, trying to fight the way his eyesight swam. Breaking his fall on his hands, he braced for the searing pain of his burn to flare again, but nothing happened.

It took him a moment to realise both his arms were healthy and whole, no sign of the severe burns. As he looked closer, there was no sign of blood or dirt on his clothes, no actual sign of him being in a fight at all. He got up slowly, taking stock of his completely undamaged body. 

When he raised his eyes, he wasn’t surprised to see Uchiha Itachi standing not far away from him, eyes a fully activated Mangekyou Sharingan, the blades spinning softly.

Fucking Uchiha with his _fucking_ illusions.

“Why?” Kakashi asked, his voice raspy with the memory of pain and his body’s unplanned reaction to his opponent’s closeness.

Itachi’s eyes faded slowly to black, but after their little fight it would take Kakashi a long time to believe what his eyes were telling him. It was an exceptionally vicious little trick, layering a genjutsu over his eyes, making them look ordinary while the Sharingan was activated.

“I think it’s a good place to set up camp.” Itachi said calmly, not betraying any kind of agitation.

Kakashi grit his teeth and took a deep breath, trying to stomp down the urge to _kill the bastard_.

Fucking Uchiha’s, not a sane one in the bunch. 

Not a one.

If he was completely honest with himself though, Kakashi could probably guess just why Itachi was so violently inclined towards him. However Kakashi made a living out of avoiding his issues rather than facing them, and he wasn’t inclined to change now.


	4. Chapter 4

Iruka sat gratefully on the ground, giving his shaking legs a bit of a rest. The pace Itachi had forced was a killer one. He could see the other team members shakily setting their own bedrolls, all of them too proud to show that they were barely managing to stay upright, while Itachi was looking as placid and fresh as he had that morning.

Well, Kakashi was faring a bit better than the rest too, to be honest. He didn’t look like he was on the edge of keeling over. There was a strangely waryair to him though. He kept his distance from Itachi while watching him very carefully at the same time. The tension he betrayed was an odd thing. The few times Umino had had a chance to work with Kakashi, the man struck him as very laid back, almost lazy. To see him this obviously wary was a strange thing. The way he kept rubbing his left arm was also odd. It almost looked as if he was hiding an injury, but Iruka could see that he was using the arm to its full extent at the same time.

He looked at the other members of the team. Karin has landed face down in her bedding and was asleep probably even before she was fully prostrate.

Juugo looked quietly resigned as he finished setting Karin’s bedroll and tucking her in, before turning to his own bedding. Genma was pale, hands a bit shaky and his customary senbon nowhere in sight.

Iruka himself was feeling more than slightly wrung out, all his limbs shaking slightly. Itachi and Kakashi had separated from the rest of the group early on, gaining incredible distance. Iruka was at first surprised that neither Karin nor Juugo had made any attempt to keep up. Genma tried but eventually had to give up. They had set a punishing pace, but had no chance of actually catching up to Itachi nor Kakashi. Eventually they had tracked their two wayward members down at a clearing they obviously set up for a camp. They had a fire going and even some freshly-caught rabbits roasting over the fire. They weren’t trying to be subtle, but Iruka thought that with the kind of sheer firepower those two were capable of together, they didn’t really need to.

After he had had a chance to eat something, Iruka got up, grateful that his legs weren’t shaking, much. He approached Itachi where the man was sitting against the tree furthest away from everybody.

Iruka watched him and couldn’t help but remember the child he’d met so many years ago. Their first meeting was purely accidental. Iruka was struggling to learn proper control for the kinds of jutsu he needed to know to reach chuunin level. He’d been training at the banks of Nakano River, in a secluded spot that has a few smaller streams joining the main current. There was also a lot of shrubbery, enough to hide him from prying eyes.

It was _not_ going well.

Sweating and panting, Iruka felt the jutsu unravel again, just before it took shape. He’d been at it for days already and frankly, it seemed to be going even worse now.

Panting, frustrated and downright _angry_ , Iruka put his hands on his knees and cursed out loud. His head was hurting from trying to keep such tight focus for so long, his body was slick with sweat and unbelievably sore. Everybody kept telling him that he was already almost at a chuunin level, all he needed was a few specialized jutsu to get the official rang and the pay raise that went with it.

Specialized jutsu didn’t seem to be his thing, though. No matter how much he trained, all of the jutsu he tried slipped through his fingers as nothing he did seemed to work. He put his hands in his hair and yanked, trying to force himself into focus again.

“You put too much chakra into the jutsu.” The voice was young, quiet and above all _startling_. Iruka whirled, palming his kunai and looking for the source of the voice. He saw nothing at first glance. It took him a second pass of his eyes to notice the small form sitting cross-legged on top of one of the small streams that criss-crossed the forest.

It was a dark haired boy, pale and small, with huge dark eyes. His skinny body was folded up around the sleeping cat he had in his lap. Everything about the boy was dark. His hair, his eyes - strangely blank - for such a young boy, to his clothes that were kept in shades of dark blue and black. Even the feline in his lap was black, it’s eyes eerily golden. It wasn’t sleeping, simply sprawling in the boy’s lap and staring judgmentally at Iruka.

He had to boggle a bit at the fact that the boy was sitting over a stream, letting the water flow under him as he used his chakra to keep on top. It rather broke his brain, to think a boy no older than eight years could have such tremendous skill. That the boy was an Uchiha was obvious, both from his looks and the ever-present uchiwa stitched onto every piece of clothing he wore.

“What?” Iruka said helplessly, completely taken aback not only by the boy’s presence but also by the oddest, blandest aura he had ever sensed from a ninja before.

The child had the audacity to wrinkle his nose at him.

“You are doing it wrong,” the boy repeated with the kind of patience one used to explain the facts of life to very young, somewhat dim children. Considering that the boy was at least seven years younger than he rankled unbelievably.

What could a clan kid know about him or his new jutsu? He was rich and protected, trained by the best, taught secret clan knowledge that gave him that much edge against any possible enemies. Beside, clan kids were never the ones to be assigned the cannon-fodder tasks, political influence keeping them safely cushioned from the ugliest of missions. And now here was a little, privileged kid daring to correct him.

“How would a kid like you even know what I was trying to do?” Iruka snarled at the presumptions, spoiled brat.

The child exhaled slowly, the way parents praying for patience would, and raised his eyes to Iruka again. Slowly his eyes bled from black to red, a perfectly developed sharingan with all three tomoe blazed in the small face.

“Because I can _see_ that you are doing it wrong.”

The boy pushed the cat off his lap, the feline making an offended sound as it slunk away, giving Iruka a too-human glare before it disappeared into the surrounding shrubbery. It made Iruka remember the rumors that the Uchiha clan had a contract with the Nekomata.

The boy rose from his sitting position with a fluid grace of which Iruka would never be capable and stepped from the the water to the ground, his feet skimming easily over water, mud, and then grass, never leaving a single mark of his passing.

Once he was standing in front of Iruka, he repeated Iruka’s hand seals with ease and speed, as if he had repeated the same sequence daily for years. Without words to help focus, Iruka’s new jutsu flared to life around them, a perfect spherical barrier encircling them, glowing slightly blue.

The kid had not only understood what Iruka was trying to accomplish, but had also obviously improved it. Iruka could tell already that the child was using very little chakra to achieve the same effect that had been draining Iruka for days.

“How…” Iruka murmured, still gaping at the kid.

“You force too much chakra into the first seal. You should disperse it into the surrounding area, and then once you are connected to your desired perimeter, mold the chakra for the barrier. You are missing a step, that’s why it wasn’t working for you.”

The kid let the barrier drop and watched Iruka expectantly.

The almost-chuunin growled, muttering abuse under his breath, but repeated the proper sequence of hand seals. He was the one who had _designed_ the things, and it took him four times as long to complete the whole sequence.

As he watched the barrier go up fitfully, choppy and incomplete in places, he knew the kid was right. His jutsu _worked_. He could do it. He really could do it.

“I hate you,” he said without heat as he let the jutsu go. “My name is Umino Iruka,” he added resignedly.

“Uchiha Itachi,” the boy responded, letting his eyes go black. “And you shouldn’t take the chuunin exam.”

Iruka puffed out, immediately incensed by the kids gall.

“I am more than qualified enough for a chuunin!” He snapped angrily.

The child didn't flinch, didn't step back. His voice was even and calm when he spoke again.

“You will regret it.”

It was embarrassing that it took Iruka a week to realise the boy was the Uchiha Clan _heir_.

They weren’t friends then. The Uchiha seemed to prefer the Nakano River banks as a training ground rather than the official ones, and Iruka could usually find him there. They didn’t speak beyond business matters. 

Iruka did start bringing various kinds of sweets with him for their shared training session, or what he privately called “compensatory lessons”. The boy was very quiet, reticent like no child of his age should be, and also seemed to have a strange metabolism when it came to sweets. Basically he would eat anything sweet, but the cheaper the sweet, the faster the boy devoured it. Between the times Iruka was cursing the little shit out and proclaiming his undying hatred, he did sometimes worry about the amount of sweets the kid ate and how he still seemed to become skinnier every time Iruka saw him. 

The child was nothing but skin, bone, and tightly roped muscle stretched over long delicate-looking limbs. At night, alone in his room, Iruka wondered if this was the price for the boy’s power, because at times it looked as if something hollowed the boy out like removing the core from an apple. It was as if the simplest thing, the ordinary joys of youth didn’t touch him at all. His eyes were always soft, but it was the softness of pity, of not understanding. Iruka wondered at this cost of growing strong, if this was what was going to happen to Iruka too someday.

The true reason for Iruka being sent on this mission though was the last meeting he’d had with Itachi, his second since the Uchiha’s defection from Konoha.

The first meeting was nothing more than an accident on the outskirts of Fire Country, where it bordered with Ame. Iruka was a newly-promoted chuunin and doing the grunt work of the newly promoted. He was carrying replacement supplies to one of the many safe houses scattered all over the Fire Country. 

He was tired, sweaty and cranky. His feet hurt and his shoulders were killing him from ferrying the heavy storage scrolls. While the scrolls allowed for storage of large quantities of goods thanks to the specialized seals, their weight increased along with the amount of goods in them. The correlation wasn’t direct, but it did exist. Food packages didn’t necessarily affect the scrolls, but water, on the other hand made the scrolls very heavy. Iron weapons were light as air, but if they had wooden elements, they weighed a ton. It had something to do with the construction of seals, Iruka was sure, but his knowledge of seals wasn’t great enough for him to understand just why the scrolls worked so differently.

He found the large, crooked tree marked on his map and climbed down low enough to locate the the small cavern hidden underneath its roots. Just as he fell to his knees to crawl into the small space, he felt the sharp edge of a sword pressed to his neck. Whoever was had to be an exceptional ninja, because Iruka couldn’t sense him or her at all. Even though he knew there was somebody behind him. 

“Don’t try to fight me,” the voice was all but a whisper, soft like a summer night’s breeze.

Iruka knew that voice.

The sword pressed harder against his neck, drawing a thin line of fire along his unprotected skin.

Iruka let go of his weapon and raised his arms, twisting his fingers together to show that he wasn’t about to make any seals.

“Itachi.” His voice was shaking, mind full of the rumors about the Uchiha massacre, of all the monstrous things the child behind him had committed, of just what Uchiha Itachi was capable of. Even experienced jounin were terrified of meeting the boy. He had a _flee on sight order_ in his profile in a Bingo Book.

“Be still.” The order was said as softly as the first sentence, no emotion bleeding into it. Itachi was so blindingly fast that Iruka felt the movement of the swords at the same time he heard the distinct sound of cloth parting and felt the weight of his pack dropping from his shoulders. He lost his balance, almost hitting the dirt face first before he managed to untangle his hands to break his fall. When he looked back, there was no sign of Uchiha or his resupply pack.

The second time was more traumatic.

He was wedged into a small crevice in a rock while on a mission to Rock Country that had gone to hell without any warning. He was assigned to a four man team, three of them already dead at the hands of highly-trained ninja chasing them. Iruka managed to stay alive, but his ribs were broken and there was very little chance of him surviving the day, much less the mission.

The rock shook around him as another projectile hit the entrance of his hideout. The pursuing ninja found him and were playing with him now, already sure he wasn’t capable of defending himself or even escaping any more. He was all but dead, serving as no more but entertainment for his hunters.

The first scream was so sudden he didn’t actually understand what was happening. Then there was another and another, gurgling sounds of death that kept coming at incredibly short intervals. In just a matter of seconds everything was quiet.

Extremely quiet.

When he decided to look out from his hiding place, he wished he hadn’t.

Below him, on the grassy plains was a scene of carnage. All nine hunter nin were dead, brutal slashes cutting through vital parts of their bodies, their bellies, their necks. Some even had their hands separated from their wrists. It was…exceedingly vicious. There was blood everywhere, it’s cloying smell reaching even him in his hideout. What was even more disturbing, more terrifying was that at least two of those ninja looked like they’d killed themselves, the distinctive way their bellies were cut open indicating a self-inflicted wound. Iruka was swallowing convulsively, trying to quell the nausea. In the middle of all the carnage stood a pale figure. His dark hair was long enough now to be caught in a ponytail that rested on the nape of his neck and snaked down between his shoulderblades. He wore the white armor of ANBU corps, but his face was not covered by any mask. His bare arms and the white chestplate were splattered heavily with blood, the short sword he was holding all but dripping with blood and other matter. His face was pale, still, and expressionless.

Uchiha Itachi, the fourteen-year old that a year ago had murdered his whole Clan before escaping the village, stood in the middle of the carnage completely placid, seemingly unaware of the death he’d caused.

He’d grown a lot since the last time Iruka had seen him. He was taller now, more muscular but also much colder. His eyes weren’t even red. Simply black and still. He didn't look winded or angry, just very, very still.

It was the boy's chakra that had changed the most. It was immense, powerful enough to make Iruka’s head hurt as it rolled over the clearing. It wasn’t dark or overly malicious but it was completely inescapable, suffocating his will to fight. It wasn’t even fear that made his heart stutter, it was the sheer, overwhelming hopelessness that overtook him suddenly. The feel of Itachi’s chakra was devastatingly different from what he remembered of him as a younger child, and for a moment Iruka wondered if Itachi had really drastically changed this or had he always been like that, just now he didn’t bother to hide anymore.

The smell of blood was making Iruka gag, the pain of the broken ribs was making him dizzy and distantly he recognized he might be going into shock.

Uchiha raised his head and locked his eyes on Iruka. The boy’s eyes were dark and unreadable, his face set into something approaching professional focus, completely impersonal.

“Give me the scroll,” Itachi said quietly, not even bothering to move from his position.

Iruka expected to die then, the way anybody who met the Uchiha heir had done since his defection.

He reached into his vest for the scroll he was supposed to escort to Konoha. At this point it was already no use fighting.

Painfully he scrambled down from his perch and handed the scroll over.

“Are you going to kill me?” Iruka hated that his voice shook, as he watched the blood splattered hand take the scroll from him.

Itachi looked at him with eyes slowly bleeding red.

“I told you you would regret the promotion.” Itachi’s voice was flat but still soft, not conveying even a hint of emotion.

“I guess you did,” Iruka answered as he met the activated Sharingan. If he was going to die, he was going to at least do it with dignity. It stung though, that the kid being eight years old had seen something Iruka just realized now. He couldn’t deal with death and deception as well as he thought he would. All of the missions that were assigned to him after his raise to chuunin rank had not been...something he wanted to do. He was a good fighter, better than average. Smart and collected under pressure. But when he’d come home he couldn't sleep, couldn’t eat, could scrub his mind free of the images of death and suffering he’d caused.

Itachi had known that even before Iruka had reached chuunin. Knew that Iruka wouldn’t last long as an active ninja if he rose in ranks.

The last thing he remembered was the three tomoe in his sharingan eyes starting to spin.

He woke up some indiscriminate time later. His head was pounding, his mouth tasted like ash, but he _woke up_ , and that was more than he’d expected.

He was alone, in a small cave. There was a small fire burning nearby and his ribs were tightly bandaged. On his other side sat his pack with the scroll lying neatly on top.

The seal was broken.

When he’d dragged himself back to Konoha and reported everything that happened, he asked Hokage to take him off the active operatives list.

Next month he started as an Academy teacher and had never regretted his choice.

He would and could fight if necessary, but he much preferred fighting defensively rather than offensively. It was humbling, though, that a child of eight could see what had taken him almost six years to realize.

Now Iruka sat down near the older Uchiha, a little stunned at how beautiful the man was. Slim and graceful, he had kept that otherworldly grace from his childhood and turned it into something more mature, more sensual and deadly. There was such easy, unthinking competence in the man, it made people realise just how ordinary they were in comparison.

“Thank you,” Iruka said when he was sure he had the other man’s attention.

Itachi turned his dark eyes towards Iruka, his brow going up in a silent question.

“For not killing me that time. For saving my life.”

Itachi tilted his face in a small gesture of acknowledgement.

They said nothing more, simply sat there in silence until it was time to sleep.

*

The little clearing among the mountains on the border of Rock and Water Country was surrounded on three sides by running water. It made sense to Kakashi that they chose this as their camp when he saw Suigetsu Hozuki waiting for them in the shade of a an old maple tree.

The place had obviously been chosen to give Suigetsu all possible advantage. Fighting him here would not be easy or pleasant at all.

“Yo!” The blond gave them a grin and a wave. It would have looked friendly if not for the fact Kakashi could sense a dozen water clones scattered over the surface of the nearby rivers.

Itachi didn’t even try to come closer to Suigetsu. He merely stopped and started to unwrap one of the bandages around his left arm. When he had most of the bandage free, he bent down to put it on the ground.

He stepped back from the bandage, and with a puff of smoke, instead of a bandage there was a foot long muddy brown snake. It drove home the fact that that Sasuke really was the Snake Sannin’s protege. He might have killed Orochimaru, but he carried his legacy more surely than any of the fanatically devoted ninja Orochimaru always seemed to have hidden away somewhere.

The snake slithered quickly into the nearest river. Kakashi watched it streak through the water, his body barely visible in all the greenery. It surfaced near Suigetsu, raising his head from the water to stare at the young ninja.

“Finally!” Suigetsu yelled, making a seal to disperse the water clones surrounding them. “I have had enough! You told me it would take only few days! It’s been almost two weeks!” He kept yelling, gesticulating angrily. “How could you leave me alone with all those women?!”

Itachi stated to make his way towards the pale ninja, not bothered by the steady stream of complaints and abuse being thrown his way.

“I want company! Male company! And no, the snakes don’t count!” The blond raged some more, ignoring the fact that Itachi was directly in front of him. “And take your seal off of me already, I do not appreciate having a fucking migraine for two fucking weeks!”

“Everything was quiet?” Itachi inquired as he checked if the rest of the team was close behind him.

“Yeah, yeah. One of the snakes would have came with a warning, otherwise,” grumbled the teenager.

“Everything ready?”

Suigetsu rolled his eyes.

“Yes, hard not to do with Fuu appearing in the middle of the night and screaming his head off about mice. Eventually he even managed to inform me we were finally due to move”.

Itachi huffed gently through his nose but didn’t comment, instead turning to look at the snake still in the water.

“Break it,” Itachi said quietly and the snake immediately dove under the water.

Nothing happened for a long moment, and then Kakashi felt it. A small trickle of chakra, an odd tension similar to the kind one got just before a migraine. Just when the pressure became almost unbearable, it popped suddenly. Reeling from the sudden change in pressure, it took him a little while to realize that something more has changed.

Focusing his slightly fuzzy sight, he looked around and nearly stumbled. Genma on his right had his jaw hanging low, and Iruka was downright staring. In front of them where before had been only a marshy forest, there was now an obvious camp with at least a few dozen people milling about.

Itachi, Juugo, and Karin didn’t even flinch, just headed straight for the camp, obviously expecting it.

Slightly shocked, reeling, Kakashi was getting an inkling that Sasuke’s team was much more than a random collection of missing nin he’d collected on the way. They obviously knew how to work together with each other as well as in cooperation with Sasuke’s summons. That had to be learned, planned, _trained for_.

Also it occurred to him just _why_ the Uchiha Clan had such a high standing. It wasn’t just the wealth, it was the obvious mastery of illusions the clan had. He couldn't even wrap his head around an illusion that could hide a whole camp from sight. Not only sight, but smell, and hearing too. Now that the genjutsu had been broken, Kakashi could smell the scent of smoke from the dying fires, the cooking, and the waste a camp this size produced.

By the time they’d reached the camp proper, Itachi was surrounded by people.

By women.

Now that he took a closer look, Kakashi noticed that they were all women, all of them young and obviously civilian.

“Itachi-san, it’s good to see you back.” The words were polite but also very _warm_ , intimate almost. The pretty girl, because she was a girl no older than Itachi himself, leaned up to kiss Itachi on his cheek. That wasn’t what shocked Kakashi stupid.

It was the way Itachi shifted his body towards her ever so slightly, his hand coming to rest on her waist in an unconsciously possessive gesture and how he leaned down to meet the kiss halfway. There was something almost unreal in the way Itachi’s eyes closed, his long lashes fanning over his pale cheeks for a moment. He wasn’t the very least awkward or shy, obviously used to the attention.

“How are you feeling Chiasa?”

She smiled at Itachi, her dark eyes soft.

“Everything is going okay, you don’t need to worry so much.”

“Ha!” came another female voice, this one louder, more self-assured. “I told you that would be the first thing he asked!”

Another dark-haired, dark-eyed girl, younger than the first, pushed her way forward and fisted her hands in Itachi’s clothes.

“Tell me you are taking us back to civilization because I am officially fed up with roughing it up.” She even shook Itachi a bit and the dangerous, S-class ninja placidly allowed himself to be manhandled.

“Aiko.” Itachi’s voice was soft and warm, _fond_ in a way Kakashi has _never_ heard it. “Yes. We have two houses ready now, the rest will require more work.”

“Yay!” She whooped and planted a kiss right on Itachi’s lips. “Finally!”

Kakashi turned to look at Genma, not surprised to see the other ninja’s eyes glued to her belly. The girl was pregnant. As were at least three other in the group surrounding them. There were also kids running around. The fact that they all looked like Uchiha, with the characteristic big black eyes and dark hair was something that the Hokage needed to know about.

Looking at the obviously new Clan, Kakashi finally understood why Sasuke had come back to Konoha, why he swallowed down his anger.

Because there were going to be children born soon, and Kakashi wasn’t all that sure they were all Itachi’s.


End file.
